In our recent proud tradition of not wishing kids a happy birthday until at least a week has passed, we are happy to extend our most Bobbledy birthday wishes to Milo!
We are happy, pleased, delighted, and almost overjoyed to have received this drawing from Milo.
Milo’s drawing arrived without any accompanying text or explanation, which means I have the fun of diving in without any sort of frame or filter. Which is to say, I may completely misinterpret Milo’s intentions. But isn’t that half the fun of making a drawing or looking at one? Even though Milo might have had one thing in his mind when he made his picture, if I have a completely different thing in my mind when I look at it, didn’t the collective imagination of the world get a little bit bigger?
That said, here’s what I see when I look at Milo’s drawing: Two five-legged octopi jumping out of a hot air balloon into the Amazonian jungles below. They are twin brothers, and it is their eleventh birthday. To celebrate, they are skydiving. Milo has captured them in the moment between leaping from the basket and pulling the ripcords on their parachutes. Their jumps were so death-defying, so bold, so utterly synchronized that the cameraman octopus who they hired to shoot a video of their amazing leap was moved to utter “Wow!” in spite of his being in the habit of witnessing awesome, surprising, and (frankly) terrifying things on an hourly basis.
Which is to say, thank you, Milo. That particular story above would never have existed in my head if you had not sent me your amazing picture.
Milo is actually already quite famous for making things. If you are interested, you can follow his craftiness over on Hideous, Dreadful, Stinky, where his projects are filed under Milo Makes.
For those of you who are sitting there wondering what the artist (and newly anointed six year old) looks like, here you go.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, Milo. We are so glad that you sent us your card. We hope that you are enjoying being six. We hope we get to meet you some time. Bug your parents to bring you to Chestertown. And please ask them, when they come, to bring a plate of cookies, fresh from the oven.